was not, however, the only Greek book in his library. He had already a copy of Plato, (or some part of Plato,) which, strange to say, he found somewhere in the West; where, he does not tell us. "Erat mihi domi, dictu mirum, ab occasu veniens olim Plato Philosophorum Princeps." Scholastics, he goes on to say, might deny this supremacy of Plato, but Cicero himself and Plotinus, and Ambrosius and Augustine would admit it.

Petrarch was in constant feud with the Schoolmen of his time. He denounced as a sordid mechanical craft their routine of syllogisms, which led, in one unvarying circle, from premises taken for granted, because settled by authority, to conclusions equally settled by authority, from which it was heresy to depart; he denounced their system of education as cramping and narrowing the intellect instead of expanding and enlarging it. He urged the substitution of the "humaniores literæ,"-that more human, more humane literature, where the most precious gems of thought were set in the purest style of eloquence. In his eyes the Doctors of the schools were men who kept their young Samsons grinding chaff in the same dark mill instead of arming them to slay the Philistines of ignorance and barbarism. In the view of Dante, the Schoolmen Aquinas and Bonaventura had been when alive the consummate masters of all theological and philosophical wisdom, and were dwelling after death in the ineffable light of Paradise. Petrarch, though he did not dare to speak with disrespect of these canonized saints themselves, attacked their followers as mischievous pedants who fostered real ignorance by making a trade of pretended knowledge. Neither did he spare the professors of the other faculties, the physicians and the jurists. While for himself he claimed to be an orthodox believer, he undermined the very foundations of orthodoxy by assailing the principle of authority.

Living as he did in the immediate neighborhood of the Popes, and sharing their bounties, he did not question their right divine, but he scrupled not to remonstrate against their wrong government. That he could do so with impunity is worthy of notice. The Pontiffs of Avignon, Frenchmen and men of the world, wealthy and self-indulgent, with no belief of their own, too indifferent even to be

skeptical, were not destitute of a certain good-humored tolerance. And Petrarch had become, as it were, supreme Pontiff in the world of letters, his judgments infallible, and his person sacred. From the intrigues, the grossness and corruption of the papal court he turned with disgust, to find more congenial companionship among his friends of the library, loftier aspirations, and a purer morality in Cicero and Seneca, of whom he might have said in the words of another laureate, Robert Southey

"My life among the dead is past:
Around me I behold,

Where'er these casual eyes are cast,
The mighty minds of old.
My never-failing friends are they,

With whom I converse day by day."

His chief ground of complaint against the Popes was that they kept the Church in shameful captivity and exile, away from its own sacred city, Rome. He constantly speaks of Avignon as the Babylon of the West; yet to him, in his heart of hearts, Rome was sacred, not because she had been Christian and Papal, but because she had been consular and republican. Dante's ideal had been the Empire of Augustus ; Petrarch's ideal was the Commonwealth of Brutus.

Hence it came that he was the enthusiastic encourager, if not the original inspirer of Cola di Rienzi, a name made familiar to multitudes by the genius of Lord Lytton. The true history reads like romance. Rienzi, a dreamy enthusiast, had wandered and mused among the ruins of Rome, now abandoned by the Popes to misgovernment and anarchy, till his mind became, like those ruins, a medley of recollections, in which regal, republican, imperial, and medieval times, Pagan and Christian rites, were inextricably blended. But among these fancies one clear definite purpose shone distinctly out-to suppress the nobles who maintained themselves as petty tyrants, each in his castle with an army of retainers, and to make all citizens equal before one just and impartial law. Rienzi's enthusiasm was contagious, and his eloquence convincing: in unity of purpose the people found a momentary strength, before which the nobles quailed; and once more the Roman Republic was proclaimed, with Cola di Rienzi for its tribune. This was in 1447. Petrarch was in ecstasies. He addressed the tribune in his most

mellifluous Italian,* and his most grandiloquent Latin. He sets him above Romulus, Brutus, and Camillus, as rescuing from slavery a mightier Rome, girding it with defences stronger than walls, and founding a more enduring liberty. But the triumph was short. Rienzi's enthusiasm was doubt less from the beginning tinged with insanity. Drunk with vanity, too often drunk with wine, he thought only of devising incongruous titles and decorations for himself. He called himself not only Tribune but Augustus, he bathed in a vase of porphyry traditionally sacred as the baptismal font of Constantine, he was knighted in the Lateran church, and crowned with seven crowns in Santa Maria Maggiore. The story of his fall, his wanderings, imprisonment, trial, his restoration as Senator of Rome under papal authority, his murder at the hands of the populace who had once crowned and worshiped him, is (as I have said) stranger than all fiction. The Roman Republic established by Rienzi was brief-lived, like that founded by Arnold of Brescia in earlier, or that founded by Garibaldi in later, days; but if the Popes had been able to learn the lesson, they might have read in it a sign that a new power was coming to life, or rather that an old power was rising from its grave to dispute their authority, and to wrest from their grasp the wills and consciences of men.

The temporary success of Rienzi's adventurous enterprise is significant as a sign of the times. Petrarch's influence wielding only the pen was far more extensive and enduring. When he left Avignon for Italy, he was received in every city with all possible honors both by princes and people. His declining years were soothed

"With all that should accompany old age,

As honor, love, obedience, troops of friends;"

and when he finally retreated to end his days at Arqua among the Euganean hills, his solitude was cheered or troubled by ad miring disciples from all parts of the world, some of whom sent him their tributary verses or encomiastic orations, and some came in person to recite them. He died came in person to recite them. He died at the age of seventy, having attained an almost universal fame, such as no man of letters before or since ever acquired in his lifetime. His fame as an Italian poet still survives, if half-eclipsed by the fame of

"Spirto gentil," p. 436. (Rime.) + Ep. Hortatoria, p. 595. (Opera.)

Tasso and Ariosto. His fame as philosopher and Latin poet is gone, or lives only as the memory of a memory, the shadow of a shade. As we turn wearily over the pages of the ponderous folio which contains his Latin works, we ask how it came to pass that these trivial commonplaces, this tawdry rhetoric, this indifferent Latin, moved contemporary men to tears of enthusiastic admiration. The reason is that he first gave voice and form to the blank misgivings, the secret discontents, the halfconceived aspirations, of his time. The indifferent Latin was of classic purity in comparison with the Latin of his predecessors, the tawdry rhetoric glowed with poetic lustre as contrasted with the dull verbiage of the Schoolmen, the trivial commonplaces were then new and startling truths. The neglected volume which few try to read and none succeed in reading, contains the spells by which the mighty magician called up the spirits of the ancient dead, and was once venerated as the Gospel of the Apostle of the Humanities. The spirits have delivered their message, have told us all they had to tell, and the good tidings are old news now. Moreover, if we have learned much which the contemporaries of Petrarch did not know, they knew much which we have forgotten, and many a saying which was pregnant of meaning for them is barren for us. In any case, if our range of vision is wider then theirs, it is well to remember the old simile of the dwarf standing on the shoulders of the giant. Not that I believe the intellectual faculties of one generation to differ much potentially from those of another: the actual results differ according to circumstances. When men are compelled to devote all their energies to self-defence or self-support, to war or the chase, or agriculture, the intellectual fruit is nil; when the mental energies are wrongly directed, to the grinding and regrinding of any chaff, scholastic, classical, less. It may have a conventional value at or scientific, the fruit of such labor is worththe time and help a man to buy his bread withal, but to posterity it will be as valueless as a French assignat or a Pennsylva

nian bond.

calling men away from the grinding of chaff Petrarch's great service was rendered in to fields of useful labor, from scholastic logic to the study of the Humanities. His work was of immense value at the time; it was done by him and his followers so thorough

ly and so well, it has entered so much into our thoughts and feelings, that we can not conceive how men thought and felt before. But for Petrarch and his successors, mod

ern thought, modern belief, and modern. civilization would have been very different from what they are.

[From Macmillan's Magazine.

CHAPTER III.

RECREATION.

THIS is a subject which may seem somewhat foreign to that of government; and indeed any direct action of Government upon recreation would be, in the highest degree, absurd and ineffective. We all know what the attempt of James the First, with his "Book of Sports," led to; and there could not be a surer method of provoking people to Puritanism than for any Government to attempt to direct what the people should do in their leisure moments.

But still it can not be otherwise than a subject of grave import to every Government, wisely to encourage, or even, when possible, to provide for, judicious recreation. It can not be unimportant for a Government to consider how one-third of the time of the people it governs is spent or may be spent; and, according to my notion, it is the duty of a Government to provide the principal facilities for recreation.

The principal facility is space. Herein the circumstances differ very much in ancient and in modern times. In ancient times there was free space round about, or not far from, every spot in which population was connected together. In modern times, this first necessity has become a matter of great difficulty to provide. There is not any thing which a Government, having to govern a population concentrating itself into great masses, should be more watchful to obtain, than open spaces in connection with those centres of dense population. Here is an instance in which foresight in Government would be most useful, and would meet with, or at least deserve, the gratitude of every succeeding generation. We can not shut our eyes to the fact that large towns are invading the country which surrounds them, in a manner which must be any thing but conducive

to the comfort and recreation of the inhabitants. There is scarcely any money better expended by Government, than that which is spent in preventing this evil.

One difficulty, which immediately occurs in making provision for these open spaces, is that the necessity for them and the claim that would be made for them, if people were wise enough to perceive that necessity, are not confined to any particular centre of population. The want is almost universal. The Government, however, can only act occasionally in this matter, and will always be liable to the accusation of favoritism, when it does so act. It will be said, for instance, to favor the Metropolis, if it especially devotes itself to insuring open spaces for the chief centre of population. The fear of this accusation must be resisted, and at the same time care should be taken to avoid such a course of action as would render the accusation just. In matters not of a very dissimilar kind, a mode has been found of encouraging some good work of a local character, without incurring the reproach of favoritism-namely, by giving a sum from the Imperial Exchequer bearing some proportion to the amount of funds provided locally for the purpose in question.

To provide such funds on the part of an Imperial Government, would be a better mode of benefiting future generations than a reduction of the National Debt. If people are to live in comfort, and to have the first means of recreation at a future period in the existence of great towns, they will have to encounter far greater expenditure than that which they would be spared by any reduction of the National Debt which, by our savings, is likely to be effected. The foregoing is the principal object which almost all Governments, and especially our own, must keep in view when it takes into consideration the recreation of the people.

Another object, which Government should have in view, is so to regulate its Licensing System as to restrain, if not to prevent, the adulteration of the liquor which will be drunk by the people, while at the same time it must not, in a frivolous and vexatious manner, hinder its subjects from procuring refreshments of any kind, at any reasonable time, and at any fitting place.

There is another mode in which Government may indirectly favor and further one of the best and safest means of recreation. This is by making music one of the subjects for education in all Elementary Schools. It is almost impossible to overrate the effect upon the manners, the morals, and the enjoyments of the people, which may be produced by the encouragement of an art which especially lends itself to the best kind of social recreation.

The great object in recreation is, that it should occupy time, and that it should be social. The recreation which is mainly chosen by the male part of the poorer classes, combines almost every possible disadvantage, as it is found mainly in the gin-palace. It is taken quickly: it is taken unsocially it is for the most part taken unwholesomely. That the existence of an entirely opposite state of things is not beyond the bounds of possibility, may be seen in many continental towns; where, in gardens not remote from these towns, there is music of an excellent kind, and where the townspeople may be seen, from the highest to the lowest, enjoying with their families the delights of music and of dancing; the time thus spent occupying a large portion of that leisure which is so dangerous when no means are provided for employing it. How different a state of things is that in which the British laboring man seeks a few brief moments of excitement, or forgetfulness, by repeated visits to some gaudy building, wherein provocatives to thirst are largely intermingled with the liquors that should assuage that very thirst.

I need hardly add, that, on all occasions where there is any thing of a festive character in which government has a hand, it would be desirable to extend the means of partaking that festivity to the largest concourse of people that can be provided for. Here I venture to make a suggestion which may at first appear to be un

fairly included in a work upon Government, using the word Government in the ordinary sense. I have, however, the right to extend that sense, as in the former part of my work I was careful not to limit that word to its ordinary signification. By Government I did not mean only the twelve or thirteen over-worked persons who form the Cabinet, and whose chief occupation is to bring in Bills, which at first are as trim and neat as a regiment upon parade, but which, when developed into Acts, present the appearance of the same regiment after a battle-much diminished in number, and with many of the survivors wounded, wayworn, and largely bespattered with mud. In a free State the really governing people are very numerous. As regards, however, the suggestion I am about to make, I mean to allude to those only who are the possessors of land, and who have the means to sustain that position adequately.

Many of these persons are undoubtedly doing what they can to raise those who are dependent upon them into a higher and better sphere of being. The suggestion I would make is, that these governing persons should also provide for the recreation of the poorer classes around them; and there is one way of effecting this good object, which in my opinion would be found to have the best results. I would have them erect in, or near, the village or the town which is contiguous to, or central in, their estates, a building suitable for purposes of recreation. According to my fancy it should be a square, or oblong, like the Cloth Hall in Leeds in miniature, or like the cloisters attached to some cathedral, having an open space in the centre, and covered shedding round it. This construction might be ever so roughly made, or rather might be made according to the means of the landholder. It. would be well if over the whole, or any part of it, an awning could be stretched. As for an open green, you might as well, during many months of the year in our fickle climate, have a pond. At this very time that I am writing, at the end of the joyous month of May, there have been about three days in the month during which people could recreate themselves in the open air. Jean Paul is not far wrong when, in reference to certain parts of the globe, he says that mankind are after all but "water-insects" (Wasserinsecten.)

This proposal may seem to indicate a matter of but small advantage. But in reality the benefits to be gained from it are positively immense. Such a building as I have imagined would prove the best rival and most potent enemy to the publichouse or the gin-palace. It is very seldom that you can correct a positive by a negative. You must introduce a new positive to meet the old one if it is mischievous. Forbidding is of little effect, when compared with bidding to something else. A very remarkable example of what I mean has been given of late years by the result of Mr. Phelps's management of Sadler's Wells. That theatre, in which the acting of Shakspeare was revived, has, I am told, proved very inimical to the public-houses in its vicinity; and has, in a quiet way, been the means of suppressing drunkenness in that neighborhood.

But this is not all. Innocent amusements bring with them inevitably much cultivation. In such a building as I have imagined, the village or town musicians would find a field for their exertions. The young people would see one another, not in the slinking way in which they do now in many rustic places, but openly under the eyes of their elders. At the dances that would take place in this building, good manners would infallibly be cultivated, and good dress, which is not a matter of slight importance, for I am told by those who have examined this subject carefully that it is almost an invariable fact that in factories and workshops the best-dressed girls-by which, of course, I do not mean the finest-dressed girls-are those whose conduct in all respects is also the best.

Moreover, the women, young and old, of the district would have something to look forward to, and at present their life is, for the most part, a very down-trodden one. I need hardly mention that, for all athletic sports, this building-or, as I would rather call it, this inclosure-would be most serviceable. It is acknowledged that for the State, especially for such a State as that of Great Britain, in which there is so much employment necessarily of an unhealthy character, these athletic sports are very needful. I have, however, a reason of my own for valuing them very much, and that is that they give an opportunity for excelling in something to youths who have not the other gifts in

which excellence is recognized. And nothing so much raises a youth's self-respect, from which good conduct naturally flows, as its being acknowledged and proved that he can do any one thing very well.

Lastly-and this is a great point-we are bringing education home to all the people. The next generation will, undoubtedly, be much better educated than the present one. They will assuredly desire to show forth the fruits of that education. If you wish to localize cultivation, you must furnish local means for so doing; and though it may not appear a very direct or obvious way, a sure way of providing it may be found through recreation. Those who can sing well or dance well, or talk well, or play music well, or draw well, will find opportunities for displaying their acquirements in recreation, and will not be so much disposed to hurry away into the vortex of the great centres of population, which are already far too much overcrowded.

If life is ever to be made comely and beautiful, it will be by bringing some of the arts and refinements (which at present are carried to a great height in the centres of population) to the more remote parts of the country, so that civilization may be spread more equally all over the world.

My readers may smile at the large conclusions which have been brought out, in commenting upon the advantages to be derived from the innocent little constructions which I have imagined to be built upon many great estates. But we must have a beginning in all things; and it would probably astonish any persons, who may be inclined to adopt the proposed experiment, to see how many good results, which I have failed to indicate, would proceed from its adoption.

One thing must always be remembered with respect to recreation; namely, that regularly recurrent pleasures are those which effectively recreate. It is a very good thing, no doubt, to have occasional whole holidays, and the British people are very much obliged to Sir John Lubbock for the recent act which bears his name, and for which we are entirely indebted to him. But whole holidays will not do that which I think governing persons may well consider to be an object for their carethat is, to provide the means whereby the laboring population may have constantly